14 DAY TRIAL // Following news that Apple may be testing a ‘special’ version of Siri for old-generation devices, several sources have chimed in to confirm that staffers have indeed tested the feature with success, and now hackers have ported the assistant to iPhone 3GS.
It appears that not only is the A4 CPU more than suitable for Siri’s AI, but that even the 3GS can handle it with its limited processing power and memory.
Sources claim that Apple “briefly” allowed staff to test a build of iOS 5 with Siri on older device models, including iPod touches, but that the build was pulled once the trial was done.
People familiar with the situation say “the dry run supposedly went ‘really well’.”
A second source reportedly confirmed the same thing, adding that Siri reached satisfactory performance levels on old-gen hardware, but that the microphone of the iPod touch 4G did not handle the voice commands quite the way it should have.
Now comes word that developer Ryan Petrich, aided by Steven Troughton-Smith and hacker chpwn, have ported the personal assistant to the iPhone 3GS. Per the video embedded below, Siri works well even on hardware that’s dated two generations back.
The developers / hackers reportedly said that microphone performance was not very good, indicating that Apple may not release a version for iPhone 3GS users, if it even decides to roll one out for older devices.
The port is also debatable from a sales point of view. After all, Siri is one of the biggest selling points of the iPhone 4S (if not the biggest). Apple would shoot itself in the foot by allowing this differentiator to re-ignite interest in older, cheaper hardware.
But there may be more to Apple’s business strategy than meets the eye. We’ll just have to wait and see.
